Earth Changes

Emergency food flown into stranded European towns

Alina Wolfe Murray
Associated Press
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:04 UTC

© Vladimir Gogic/AP
A Serbian police helicopter delivers food to sailors stuck on stranded boats on the Danube river near Smederevo, Serbia, on Monday, Feb. 13.

Bucharest, Romania - Military planes and police helicopters flew in tons of emergency food to snowbound villages and ships in the Balkans on Monday, after blizzards so fierce that some people had to cut tunnels through 15 feet (4 meters) of snow to get out of their homes.

Since the end of January, Eastern Europe has been pummeled by a record-breaking cold snap and the heaviest snowfall in recent memory. Hundreds of people, many of them homeless, have died in the bitter cold and tens of thousands have been trapped by blocked roads inside homes with little heat.

Authorities declared a state of emergency Monday in eastern Romania, where 6,000 people have been cut off for days. About a dozen major roads were closed, 300 trains canceled and more than 1,000 schools shut down.

In addition to the flights, the defense ministry also sent 8,000 soldiers out clearing roads across Romania and helping those trapped by the overwhelming snow.

Emergency officials in Serbia used helicopters to deliver food and evacuate sailors stuck on icebound boats on the Danube river near the town of Smederevo. They also resupplied a Danube island near Pancevo, north of the capital of Belgrade.

Snow Piled 10 Metres High Along Japanese Road

Jordan Chittley
Daily Buzz
Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00 UTC

We've dodged much of winter's wrath in Canada with higher than normal temperatures and smaller amounts of snow this year. The same can't be said for other parts of the world.

A cold snap returned to Japan this week bringing blizzards and creating record snow piles in some areas. The city of Niigata in central Japan has already seen 13 feet of snow and the weather agency is predicting up to 25 additional inches over the next few days, reports WFMY News. The village of Okura has received more than 10 feet of the white stuff and the Hokuriku area received three feet in less than 24 hours.

It is no wonder this road in Japan has massive snow walls on both sides. The video below shows footage from a bus travelling up the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. Snow is as high as 10 metres above the road in some spots.

Costa Rica: Earthquake Magnitude 5.8 - South of San Jose

US Geological Survey
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:58 UTC

Date-Time:
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 10:55:11 UTC
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 04:55:11 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
9.227°N, 83.980°W

Depth:
27.9 km (17.3 miles)

Region:
COSTA RICA

Distances:
75 km (46 miles) S of SAN JOSE, Costa Rica

115 km (71 miles) NW of Golfito, Costa Rica

120 km (74 miles) SE of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

135 km (83 miles) SW of Limon, Costa Rica

US: California - Earthquake Magnitude 5.6 - Northern California

US Geological Survey
Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:46 UTC

Date-Time:
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 21:07:02 UTC
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 01:07:02 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
41.153°N, 123.817°W

Depth:
32.9 km (20.4 miles)

Region:
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Distances:
10 km (6 miles) WSW (247°) from Weitchpec, CA

28 km (17 miles) ENE (63°) from Westhaven-Moonstone, CA

29 km (18 miles) ENE (70°) from Trinidad, CA

50 km (31 miles) NE (36°) from Eureka, CA

352 km (218 miles) NW (326°) from Sacramento, CA

Fukushima's North Pacific Radioactive Seawater Plume Approaches Alaska

EdwardTeller
FiredogLake
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:26 UTC

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Rare Spectacle - Whales, Dolphins Play in Hawaiian Waters

JohnThomas Didymus
Digital Journal
Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:51 UTC

Images produced by the National Center for science Literacy, Education and Technology (NCSLET) showed a rare from of interaction in the wild between two species. Bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales were captured playing in Hawaiian waters.

According to a paper published in the Aquatic Mammals Journal, based on what is known about the behaviour of both species, play was the most plausible explanation of the observed interaction.

The paper observed that humpback whales are known to engage in "object play," and "social play" is a common occurrence among dolphins, but never has the behaviour been observed in the wild to extend across species boundaries. According to the paper, given the "apparent initiation and cooperation of each dolphin being lifted, object (i.e., the dolphin) play by the whale and social play by the dolphin seem to be the most plausible explanations for the interaction."

New Zealand: Christchurch's Wetland bird toll hits 800

The Press
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:21 UTC

Up to 800 birds have been found dead at wetlands in Christchurch's eastern suburbs and the oxidation ponds.

The Christchurch City Council said yesterday that during the past few weeks dead birds have been found on the banks of the oxidation ponds in Bromley.

Dead birds have also been found in the Bexley area and the Travis Wetland.

Council ornithologist Andrew Crossland said between 600 and 800 dead birds had been found.

"The earthquakes in Christchurch have caused a lot of changes to water quality but also to effluent levels at the oxidation ponds," he said.

Europe: Snow blocks in tens of thousands as cold death toll rises

Agence France-Presse
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:52 UTC

A man walks between cars covered with snow in Podgorica.

Snow drifts reaching up to rooftops kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes Saturday as the death toll from Europe's big freeze rose past 550.

More heavy snow fell on the Balkans and in Italy, while the Danube river, already closed to shipping for hundreds of kilometres (miles) because of thick ice, froze over in Bulgaria for the first time in 27 years.

Montenegro's capital of Podgorica was brought to a standstill by snow 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep, a 50-year record, closing the city's airport and halting rail services to Serbia because of an avalanche.

Eight more people were reported to have died in Romania, taking the toll for the country to 65, three in Serbia, one in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.

Polish fire brigade spokesman Pawel Fratcak said Saturday that defective heating had triggered a spate of deadly blazes in houses and apartments, with eight people killed on Friday night and three the night before.

Ocean Current Slowdown Made Earth Spin Faster

Catherine Brahic
New Scientist
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:40 UTC

It sometimes feels as though some months go by faster than others, but November 2009 really did. Events in the Southern Ocean conspired to make the Earth spin ever-so-slightly faster, shortening half of the days in the month by 0.1 milliseconds each.

Different factors affect how fast the Earth spins. For instance, if the winds that whip around the planet slow down, the Earth spins faster to conserve angular momentum.

There was a more down-to-earth cause in November 2009, however. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is a powerful ocean current that rings the continent. Stephen Marcus and his colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and at the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris in France noticed that it slowed abruptly on 8 November 2009, only to speed up two weeks later.

Precise day-length data revealed that the changes immediately caused the Earth to spin faster, shortening each day by 0.1 milliseconds. Like the currents, day length returned to normal on 20 November (Geophysical Research Letters,).

This is the first time we have seen a rapid change in the oceans that is large enough to affect the Earth's rotation, says Marcus. The event is worth noting as the Antarctic currents directly impact the health of the ice sheets.

Two Suns in Crimea

Translation by SOTT
Oko Planety
Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:06 UTC

The following photographs were taken this morning in Crimea:

Comment: Some of you may immediately assume that it's a kind of 'sundog' which forms when sunlight refracts through ice crystals and produces striking halo effects, but since it is not an isolated or exclusively winter phenomenon, we propose that in many cases "two suns" and other similar anomalous phenomena are a 'mirage' effect of some sort whereby the sun is being refracted by the changed atmosphere. That is, a combination of possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

Besides, when was the last time you heard about "two suns" being reported or observed? This is very strong evidence for major changes in the atmosphere and the question you've got to be asking yourself is, why?

But in this particular case, the real reasons behind Crimea's "two suns" phenomena may not be that clear cut. Consider the following analysis by one of the SOTT's editors.

There is a free software called HaloSim which calculates/renders sun halos depending on the geometric shape of the ice crystals in the atmosphere. The site and the research of Les Cowley is well worth checking out:

In this case, it indeed seem to be "sundogs". Halos of the sun can have various and complex shapes, depending on the shape of the crystales. Here is a computer rendering of a full halo:

© HaloSim

© HaloSim

Here is the real world equivalent:

© HaloSim
Also, according to Les Cowley:
Halos appear in our skies far more often than do rainbows. They can be seen on average twice a week in Europe and parts of the United States. The 22° radius circular halo and sundogs (parhelia) are the most frequent.
Here is a microscope picture of a few possible ice crystal shapes:

© Unknown
The site is full of pictures and examples (including theoretical halos formed by CO2 or Methane crystals on other planets). I can highly suggest taking the time and clicking through all of the menu items. It's an amazing subject.

Edit: In the pictures of the original news item, note that there is also another "sun" appearing on the street. This seems to be an internal reflection inside of the camera lens, since it's diametrically opposite (measured from the image center) to the real sun.